Yankees, Without Granderson, Need Power Sources

February 25, 2013

On Baseball

By TYLER KEPNER

SARASOTA, Fla. — Symbols can be powerful in spring training. The games are exhibitions, the lineups filled with strange names. On Monday the Yankees faced a playoff opponent from last fall, the Baltimore Orioles, and brought just two players from the postseason roster: Brett Gardner and Jayson Nix. The starting first baseman wore No. 98.

The Rivera they brought here was Juan, the veteran outfielder trying to cling to a fading career. The Rivera who stayed behind in Tampa offered a sliver of hope to a team that badly needs it.

Mariano Rivera took the mound again. His work was tidy — 32 pitches, done by 10 a.m. — but meaningful. For the second time this spring, Rivera threw batting practice. He wears a sleeve on his surgically repaired right knee, the one that felled him last May, but you cannot notice it through his uniform. Same old Mo.

“I don’t think about it at all,” Rivera said later, by the indoor batting cages, out of the sun but still sweating. “It’s like nothing ever happened.”

Granderson has flaws. Last season he set a team record for strikeouts, with 195, and a career low for batting average, at .232. But his value comes from his power, the one element the Yankees sacrificed most in their lackluster winter. They lost Nick Swisher, Russell Martin, Eric Chavez and Raul Ibanez to free agency.

The Yankees are missing power hitters, from left, Raul Ibanez, with Seattle; the injured Curtis Granderson; and Nick Swisher, with Cleveland.

Barton Silverman / The New York Times

No other major leaguer can come within 10 home runs of Granderson’s total for the last two seasons. He has hit 84 homers since the start of 2011. The next two players on the list, Ryan Braun and Miguel Cabrera, have 74 apiece.

So the premier power hitter in the game, by that measure, will be missing from the lineup until early May. And Rodriguez, of course, will be gone even longer. Including Jeter, who has not yet been cleared for exhibition games, the Yankees are missing seven of their top nine home run hitters from last season.

“I believe they’ll find a way to get it done,” Manager Joe Girardi said Monday. “I know people talk a lot about how we’ve lost home runs from last year. They try to put a number on it. But when they put a number on it, they don’t put a number on the home runs the guys we did add this year are going to hit.”

Girardi named Gardner, who was hurt for most of last season; Ichiro Suzuki, who joined the team in July; and the veteran imports Travis Hafner and Kevin Youkilis. He did not mention any catchers or replacements for Granderson.

“For one month, we’re going to be without Grandy,” Girardi said. “We’ll find a way to score runs.”

The short-term loss of Granderson alone is not much to overcome. On average, he hits about seven home runs a month. Whoever gets the bulk of the playing time in his absence — Matt Diaz, Melky Mesa, Juan Rivera — might hit two or three.

The broken arm sustained by Curtis Granderson, who hit this postseason home run in 2011, temporarily takes away a bat that produced 84 homers the last two years.

Chang W. Lee / The New York Times

So the Yankees, if they do nothing, probably lose four or five home runs a month. Those four or five homers, in some abstract form, could add up to one win. Maybe. In other words, don’t expect the Yankees to scramble to trade for an overpaid outfielder like Alfonso Soriano or Vernon Wells. (Old friend Johnny Damon is unsigned and told various news media outlets on Monday that he was ready to provide short-term help to the Yankees. But the team is likely to emphasize power and defense to replace Granderson.)

Realistically, other teams have little incentive right now to trade from their depth to help the Yankees; one of their starters could get hurt, just as Granderson did. Veteran role players typically become available at the end of spring training, when final roster decisions are made.

For the next few weeks, Granderson’s injury allows the Yankees to gather more information about prospects who might fill in, like Mesa, Zoilo Almonte, Ronnier Mustelier and Thomas Neal. The top prospects Tyler Austin and Slade Heathcott will not compete for the open spot, Girardi said.

Diaz and Juan Rivera are here for this very reason: as stopgap replacements, insurance in case of injury. Robinson Cano, Mark Teixeira and Jeter will anchor the lineup, Gardner and Suzuki will slap and dash, and Girardi will hope that the others simply do what they can.

Yet the margin for error grew slimmer with Granderson’s injury, and Gardner took a risk on the very first play Monday when he slid headfirst into first base to beat out a single. Couldn’t he have shown more caution?

“Not even after what happened to Curtis yesterday,” Gardner said, resigned to his own aggressiveness. “It’s funny because I didn’t get hurt. It’s a silly game, and definitely not something I should have done.”

The Yankees and their fans should get used to it. With another power source unplugged — even for a short time — they will need every base they can get, however they can get it.